While still building for the goat babies, we're also getting ready to hatch some chicks and ducks. We're really lucky that the weather has been holding out for us so far. In the photos is a chicken yard that we slapped together last year in a hurry in just two days so it's not much to look at but it works. We abandoned it thinking to rebuild a better one later on but we're now re-purposing it for the time being. Since our knuckle head chickens are used to running everywhere and getting into everything (I think some of them try to trip us on purpose), we had to put up some bird netting to keep the escape artists in. We even named one of the hens in there being bred "Ghost" because somehow she would be out running around the yard in the morning when she should have been locked in at night. We still don't know how she evaded us but it hasn't happened in a while. If the coop looks slapped together... it really is. Most everything we use is Craigs list or farm auction finds. Luckily all our neighbors are pretty far away so being the neighborhood eye sore isn't a big issue and we get to recycle and keep it cheaper :p
We have a Copper Maran Rooster so we put 8 hens in there with our two young Rhode Island Red Roosters. We had to wait a week for any Copper Maran "fertilization" to get out of their system and we're now ready to start collecting eggs. This is why we had to lock them up... also so we have more control on which eggs should be fertilized. We found a local hatchery and neighbor selling some incubators that they started with before moving up to the bigger and better ones. This one will give us a good start being our first shot at it. It even has an egg turner so we don't have to turn them five times a day and holds up to 40 eggs. We're hoping to raise more hens both for sale and to have more egg layers. There is always so much to learn. Wer'e going to try a few of our Pekin duck eggs as well most likely for meat birds. We're really asking for trouble with all these new additions and ankle biter goat babies on the way but we are really excited. It's gonna be the coolest thing to see the little peeps break out of their shell.
~Ken~
We have a Copper Maran Rooster so we put 8 hens in there with our two young Rhode Island Red Roosters. We had to wait a week for any Copper Maran "fertilization" to get out of their system and we're now ready to start collecting eggs. This is why we had to lock them up... also so we have more control on which eggs should be fertilized. We found a local hatchery and neighbor selling some incubators that they started with before moving up to the bigger and better ones. This one will give us a good start being our first shot at it. It even has an egg turner so we don't have to turn them five times a day and holds up to 40 eggs. We're hoping to raise more hens both for sale and to have more egg layers. There is always so much to learn. Wer'e going to try a few of our Pekin duck eggs as well most likely for meat birds. We're really asking for trouble with all these new additions and ankle biter goat babies on the way but we are really excited. It's gonna be the coolest thing to see the little peeps break out of their shell.
~Ken~
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